PPG Industries' industrial coatings business opened its third European color design center, located in the Silvertown area of London. At the new center, PPG will work with designers and manufacturers to accelerate color design and prototype development for products such as mobile phones, hairdryers, laptops and other electronic devices.

"With the opening of this color design center, we can offer customers in the region in-house operations backed by PPG production expertise to help create innovative coatings applications for their products and bring them to market faster," said Andrew Stadler, PPG consumer products manager, industrial coatings, Europe. "The center will enable our team to meet with designers and to organize regular workshops for the development of new colors and textures for a wide range of products. With our in-house laboratory, the results of the work will be visible within a few hours."

This is PPG's third color design center in Europe; the others are in the company's Weingarten facility in Germany and at PPG Dr. Schoch in Burgdorf, Switzerland. Worldwide, PPG has another six design center—two in the U.S., in Oak Creek, Wis., and near Los Angeles, and four in Asia (China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan). PPG expects to open another center next year in Asia.

"Because styling and design evolve quickly, it helps to have facilities located near our customers to help us react to market changes together with them," Stadler said. "At the same time, our teams work continuously to track color trends and develop innovative solutions for manufacturers."

London was selected for the new center because of its proximity to designers of consumer products, and because it offers easy access to and from other European cities said the company.

PPG's industrial coatings business supplies manufacturers in market segments such as heavy-duty equipment, automotive parts, windows and doors, appliances, flooring and consumer electronics. To the consumer products segment, PPG offers technologies and solutions such as liquid and powder coatings, from primers through clearcoats, in finishes ranging from high-gloss to ultra-matt and with a broad array of "soft feel" and other effects.